JFK 50 years later: The un-Camelot was a time of danger, war clouds and the death of a president

Friday

Nov 15, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By Chuck SweenyGateHouse News Service

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct a name. The story should have said Angie Toot.

For many baby boomers, Nov. 22, 1963, was their Pearl Harbor — people 6 or older at the time remember where they were and what they thought. The president of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was shot and killed in his open-air limousine in Dallas, where he had gone to try to unite liberal and conservative Democrats and to defend his administration's most ambitious goal.

"President Defends U.S. Space Program," headlined the Rockford Register-Republic on Thursday afternoon, Nov. 21. Kennedy was facing stiff criticism from both parties because of the high cost of the program to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s.

While three presidents had been assassinated before JFK ­— Abraham Lincoln in 1865, James Garfield in 1881 and William McKinley in 1901 — those calamities seemed in the distant past. The events of November 1963 happened before our very eyes. Although most Americans didn't see the actual shooting until Abraham Zapruder's 8 mm home movie was broadcast by ABC on Geraldo Rivera's show in 1975, the American people saw everything else as or shortly after it happened, from Walter Cronkite trying mightily to hold back tears as he informed the nation on CBS, to the frantic scene at Parkland Hospital, to the photograph of Lyndon Johnson being sworn in as the 36th president on board Air Force One, to the plane's somber return to Andrews Air Force Base.

Early in the afternoon on Sunday, Nov. 24, the nation watched as Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was shot and killed by James Ruby, a small-time nightclub owner, in a hallway of the Dallas Police Department. This was shown at close range, live on national television.

Kennedy was pronounced dead at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday. By that night, everyone with access to television or radio — and that was nearly all of the 189.2 million people who lived here — knew what had happened. Most were shocked and saddened. Some were afraid of a nuclear war. Others organized prayer vigils.

Karin Ropp was having lunch with friends at a restaurant on 20th Street in Rockford.

"A radio was on in the kitchen, and when the news came on the air, it quickly spread throughout the restaurant," said Ropp of Stillman Valley.

"When I returned to my work at Bethesda Covenant Church, the Rev. Harold Carlson and I planned a prayer service for our congregation. I chose the hymn we would sing:

"God of our life, through all the circling years,

"God of the past, our times are in thy hand, with us abide,

"God of the coming years, through paths unknown we follow thee ..."

Gary W. Pasch was looking forward to his special day — he turned 16 on Nov. 22.

"The future looked bright," he said. But his day dimmed when the president was shot and West High School was dismissed early.

Pasch and some friends reached one of their homes and went inside to watch the news coverage, "and by that time it was confirmed that the president had died from his gunshot wounds. The leader of our country was dead, and with his death, a certain piece of my youthful innocence died. How could this happen?" remembered Pasch of Rockford.

Around the nation

Similar thoughts were going through the heads of people all over the nation.

"I was in the fourth grade at St. Paul's School in Canton, Ohio, when JFK was in office," said Pat Dieffenbaugher, who still lives in Canton. "We had the opportunity to write a letter to President Kennedy to request a picture of him."

The image of Kennedy would serve as a reminder of a dark day in Dallas.

"I came home from school early because the President was shot," Dieffenbaugher recalled. "When I got home, I found a package in the mailbox. To my surprise, on the same day that our President was assassinated, I received a picture of him from the White House. ... I have kept hold of this picture in the envelope for 50 years."

Angie Toot was a sophomore in a history class at Marengo High School "when they announced over the PA system that the president had been shot and was dead. They sent us home and for three days. I was glued to the TV, watching everything. I often wonder as an adult if things would be different had he not been killed. ... I think he would have been elected again and maybe made a big difference in the society of the day," Toot said, adding that she believes JFK's untimely death set the nation on a downward spiral.

Now, she says, "We as a nation do not exude the qualities of the best that the United States has to offer."

For Jim Green, who was in the Navy stationed in Pensacola, Fla., the assassination showed the modern world how a democratic government works in a time of grave crisis.

"I distinctly remember hearing on the news how the rest of the world was transfixed as they watched us say goodbye to our president, and without a hitch, bring in LBJ as the new president ­— no shooting, no coup, just a smooth transition. Something to be proud of, both in connection to the country, and to the Constitution," said Green, now of Rockford.

The Kennedys were telegenic and glamorous. They were adored by movie stars, intellectuals and the glitterati of the day. Frank Sinatra was a friend of the president. Marilyn Monroe was rumored to be a secret girlfriend. JFK's death cast a pall over the entertainment industry, especially in Hollywood, remembered Bob Deitrick of Massillon, Ohio.

He was with actor Telly Savalas in Hollywood when he heard that the president had been shot. Deitrick, who was 20 at the time, had just finished his work shift at singer Gene Autry's Continental Hotel on Sunset Boulevard shortly after 9:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time when he decided to go to the food counter at Schwab's drugstore on Sunset for coffee and breakfast.

"I would go every morning. A lot of actors hung out there. It was neat to see them," Deitrick said. "I'm sitting there at the counter and two stools down was Telly Savalas."

A bulletin suddenly came on the small black-and-white television at the counter.

"I remember them saying 'President Kennedy has been shot in Dallas, Texas,'" said Deitrick, his voice faltering. "It's still emotional to me. Telly Savalas dropped his coffee and the cup broke on his saucer. It was just stunning. We didn't think things like that could happen."

Savalas, Deitrick and the rest of those gathered in Schwab's sat in silence for "a good half-hour."

"Nobody talked. Nobody did anything but stare at that television because we were all hoping he was OK. They had said he was in grave condition, but they hadn't declared him dead when I left. I just wanted to get home."

The somber tone lingered in Hollywood, he said.

"It was just a solemn time, and people talked in a sad manner. There was no jovial attitude for a long time."

A dangerous period

Some historians and pundits have framed the Kennedy family and the JFK administration as happy, visionary — "Camelot." But "Camelot" was a Broadway musical based on the legend of King Arthur, not on facts. JFK did enjoy playing the Broadway cast album, his wife Jackie said, but in reality, JFK presided over a dangerous period in our history.

The years since 1945, when World War II ended, were filled with one international crisis after another. The Soviet Union, our ally in the war, quickly became our enemy. Disloyal American scientists leaked the secret of how to make a nuclear bomb to the Soviets.

The Korean Peninsula exploded into war in 1950 and American soldiers were off once more to a foreign land. In 1956, Hungarians revolted against Soviet rule. They called on the West to help, but no one came, and their rebellion was crushed by Soviet tanks. In 1958, President Eisenhower sent troops to Lebanon.

On New Year's Day 1959, Cuba was taken over by leftist revolutionaries. In 1961, JFK launched the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba using Cuban anti-communists. It failed when the invaders were not hailed as liberators and instead were killed or turned back by revolutionary Cuban forces.

Then in 1962, a U-2 American spy plane photographed Soviet missiles being installed in Cuba. Kennedy demanded that the Soviets remove the missiles and sent the Navy to blockade the island nation.

For 13 nerve-wracking days, Americans never knew whether the day's sunset would be their last. "See you tomorrow, if there is one," became a common, sardonic way to say goodbye.

Finally, a deal was struck between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. — we took Jupiter nuclear missiles out of Turkey, and the Soviets took away their nuclear missiles in Cuba.

The world had come frightfully close to ending.

Roger Brace of Brookfield, Wis., was a sophomore in high school the day JFK was murdered. He was in algebra class at Auburn High School in Rockford that Friday afternoon. He believed the president's death meant imminent war.

"When we heard the voice of Principal John Wyeth on the PA, we realized that something quite serious was happening if the man himself was speaking. Mr. Wyeth informed us that our beloved president, JFK, had just been shot in Dallas. Mr. Wyeth said he would keep us updated. That shock ended what little concentration I may have had. A short time later, Mr. Wyeth's low, gravelly voice came over the loudspeaker again to inform us that President Kennedy was dead, school was now dismissed and we should all go home to be with our families," Brace said.

Brace, like most children growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, was taught that the Cold War — the West's twilight struggle against communism — could turn hot at a moment's notice. Children practiced hiding under their desks or going into the halls in the event of a Soviet attack. Surplus World War II air raid sirens atop key buildings were tested every week. Their eerie moans pierced the air with the sound of looming doom.

And so, it was logical for Brace's generation to link JFK's murder with a "hot" war with the Soviet Union. Besides, assassin Oswald was a Marine Corps veteran turned Soviet sympathizer who had lived in the Soviet Union and, on his return to the U.S., promoted something called the "Fair Play For Cuba Committee," a pro-communist group.

"Gone were my thoughts of what movie would be playing down at the Coronado or where we could go over the upcoming four-day weekend for a good dance party," Brace said. "I was scared spitless because I thought the Commies were finally coming to get us! I was thinking about (Soviet Premier) Nikita Khrushchev, banging his shoe on his desk at the United Nations and saying 'We will bury you!' I thought his warning would soon be coming true!" Brace said. (What Khrushchev said he meant at the U.N. in October 1960 was that the communist system would overtake and outlast capitalism.)

"The Reds have killed our nation's leader and they will soon bury all of us! I felt this way for two reasons — after the Bay of Pigs incident in Cuba in 1961, I had a class at Woodrow Wilson Junior High called 'Unified.' One of the subjects was heavy, ram it down your throat anti-communism."

But the world did not end, there was no war with the Soviets, and "1964 actually came; my fears of the Russian Invasion were replaced by the wonderment of the (musical) British Invasion."

A turning point

People who were already adults when JFK was shot tended not to think JFK's death would lead to an immediate war. But it definitely ended the media-constructed fantasy land of Camelot.

"One of the main things we thought about the Kennedys was the news media's 'Camelot' aspect, the glamour of the Kennedys that had been portrayed," said Mary Walters of Roscoe. She remembers the weekend well because she was about to have a baby.

"We'd been shopping at Meadow Mart that Friday and didn't know about the assassination until we came home," said Walters, who lived in Loves Park at the time. "When I got home, my son said the president had been shot. The news didn't induce labor, but I was stupefied. We talked with our neighbors, but I didn't think a war would be declared."

One thing Walters remembers is that "TV shut down all regular programs. Except for news updates, they played funeral music all the time."

Walters watched the elaborate state funeral on Monday, Nov. 25, on a television in a room in Saint Anthony Hospital, while in labor. Many Americans still remember the distinct beat of the military drummers, the procession of Kennedys, world leaders from President Charles de Gaulle of France to Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, and the riderless horse "Black Jack," a veteran of many military funerals.

Walters' daughter, Linda, was born at 5:30 p.m., after the funeral ended.

"I think that JFK's assassination was the beginning of a series of domestic catastrophes," she said, listing the shooting deaths of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy, JFK's brother, in 1968, and escalating gun violence, "lawlessness and random shootings."

Racially charged riots took place not long after the president's death: Los Angeles in 1965 and Detroit in 1967 were the most prominent. The year after JFK's death, President Johnson began the escalation of the war in Vietnam, where 58,000 Americans died.

Richard Watts was working at Kishwaukee Auto Parts when Kennedy was killed. He worked there for nearly 45 years. As an African-American, he had a keen interest in advancing the cause of civil rights.

"I was at work. It was early afternoon. A friend came in and said the president had been shot. It was a shocker. We couldn't believe it," Watts said. "Downtown, the Weise's department store covered its windows in black."

"It changed people's thoughts quickly. Life is fleeting. One moment he's the respected and well-liked head of the free world, and the next moment he's dead. Even though he was a Catholic, he was like Pope Francis — he included everybody."

Watts believes JFK's death was a turning point in U.S. history.

"Lyndon Johnson had not been an advocate of civil rights, but because of what JFK had done, LBJ made sure that the Civil Rights Act was passed," he said.

"All of the male adults where I grew up in Taylorville, Ill., were World War II veterans," said Ed Finch of Freeport.

"So, we grew up with the attitude that our parents licked the world, we can do whatever we want. The assassination was a hit over the head, and that was followed by the Vietnam War, and we never recovered from it," said Finch, who runs the Stephenson County Museum.

"The word 'assassination' bothered me for a long, long time."

Finch was a junior at Taylorville high that year, "and when we came back from lunch, the study hall teacher said the president had been shot. We were dumbfounded. Our parents were so stunned they didn't know how to react. We knew this was not good. And then, after seeing (Lee Harvey) Oswald killed on live TV, we thought the world was coming apart at the seams."

'He still matters'

Each generation has its turning-point moments, and Kennedy's death is one of those. If we had lived in Abraham Lincoln's time, we would have been just as shocked, maybe more so, said Dick Simpson, a prominent political science professor at the University of Illinois Chicago.

"If you look at the reaction to Lincoln's assassination, the historical pictures of the period show the mourners who lined the tracks when his funeral train rolled by," Simpson said.

"People of that day had the same reaction to Lincoln's death, as far as I can tell, as they did to JFK's assassination," said Simpson, who chaired the university's political science department and was Chicago's independent 44th Ward alderman from 1971 to 1979.

Lincoln had been a transformational president, launching a massive war to end the Southern rebellion, restore the Union and end slavery. But his death led to a betrayal of ex-slaves' rights in the Compromise of 1876.

"His war program worked out fine, but Reconstruction didn't," Simpson said.

Lincoln was succeeded by his vice president, Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, who was hostile to Reconstruction. Johnson was impeached.

JFK's death had a positive impact on civil rights. Simpson explained that although Kennedy believed in the cause of civil rights, he was not able to act on his beliefs because of his narrow margin of victory over Richard Nixon in the 1960 election.

"Kennedy was very hesitant on civil rights, because he knew his re-election would have been connected to Southern state support. But near the end, he finally made a strong statement on race," said Matt Streb, chairman of the Political Science Department at Northern Illinois University. "The outpouring of support for JFK after his assassination gave Johnson the opportunity to say, let's make (civil rights) his legacy."

Simpson added, "LBJ did the second New Deal, which he called the Great Society, the war on poverty, the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act."

Kennedy "is a great American president. He ranks in the top 10, maybe higher," Simpson said. According to a C-SPAN survey of presidential historians in 2009, JFK ranked sixth; Lincoln ranked first.

Like Lincoln, Kennedy is the subject of endless books and scholarly research. And, like Lincoln, JFK's words often find their way into contemporary political speeches.

Democrats claim Kennedy because he was a lifelong member of that party. Republicans like aspects of his presidency, too, especially his call for lower taxes to spur economic growth.

"I think some aspects of him were liberal, but I don't think he was quite as liberal as history portrayed him to be. The far right said he was too soft on Cuba and Russia. But the fact that presidential candidates of both parties quote John Kennedy is a pretty strong statement that he still matters," Streb said.